Group bowls tournament battles the elements

29th June 2017

The Ormskirk and Bootle Group held their annual bowls event at the Dog and Gun bowling green in Aughton, near Ormskirk; the green being located at the rear of the pub. The competition winner and runner-up go forward to represent the group at the West Lancashire Masonic Charity Bowling Tournament 2017, which will be held in Warrington in July.

John Medcalf with his trophy and Malcolm Alexander.

The group’s event was organised by John Glover, a member of Park Hall Lodge No 8375 and the competition was represented by a number of players from the lodges and chapters from within the group.

The competitors and spectators arrived at the green on a very wet summer’s afternoon, but not being deterred by the weather, commenced the tournament starting the first round of matches at 1 o’clock. Those watching the games being played could visibly see sprays of water coming off the bowls on the green as they were bowled towards the jack, which inevitably made it harder to play the shot.

After a couple of hours play there was a short break with chips and hotdogs being served as refreshments for the players and spectators before commencing with the next group of matches. With the conditions on the day not improving but getting worse, a decision was made to wait to see if there would be any improvements in the weather before the final match was played. With no improvements to the conditions the decision was made, that the player who had gone through to the final with the most points scored during the day would be declared the winner of the tournament.

The winner of this year’s tournament was John Medcalf of St Michael’s Lodge No 5756, who was presented with the winning tournament trophy by Malcolm Alexander, the Ormskirk and Bootle Group Secretary, who also played in the completion. John Glover was declared the runner-up of the tournament. Both John Medcalf and John Glover will be going to play and represent the Ormskirk and Bootle Group in the West Lancashire Masonic Charity Bowling Tournament 2017, in July.